The Internet Freedom Fellows are planning to host this year’s “Internet Freedom Forum” under the tentative broad title “Social Media, Activism and the Real World.” Zimbabwean blogger and journalist, Delta Ndou was selected as one of five 2014 Internet Freedom Fellows promoting Freedom of Expression on the Internet. Fellows will be invited to give a short 7-to-10 minute “TED talks style” presentation. The event will be opened by Ambassador Keith Harper, the U.S. Ambassador to the Human Rights Council, and the expected audience will consist of diplomats, human rights experts, and NGOs.

1. Beyond the #hashtag: what lasting
change can social media activism bring
to distant sufferers?
“Social Media, Activism and the
Real World”
Presentation by 2014 Internet Freedom Fellow (Delta Ndou)

2. My experiences with the #TokweMukosi
#FloodAssistance social media campaign
…giving a helping hand in the age of hashtags, retweets, likes and
shares
In early 2014, incessant rainfall in the low lying areas of Zimbabwe experienced flooding and over
20 000 families were affected.
As Social Media Editor of Zimpapers, I sought and was granted permission to initiate a social
media campaign to get our readers donating towards flood assistance.
Numerous hashtags, retweets, likes, shares and radio interviews later, I was able to travel to the
transit camp where flood victims were and still are based to handover bales of clothing, blankets,
shoes and foodstuffs.
To date, the plight of the flood victims has taken an alarming turn for the worse, amid donor
flight, well-wisher fatigue, running battles with law enforcement agents, disease outbreaks, riots and
social media has moved on to other hashtags, retweets, likes and shares.
The flood victims and their deplorable plight have lost traction on social media and it is this
capacity to quickly forget what we once purported to care about that I wish to interrogate.
Picture credit @HigherLifeFDN